Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Music panel to discuss New Orleans sound ordinance

Following more than a year's worth of meetings, reports and legislative battles around a new plan for New Orleans' "noise ordinance," the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MACCNO) hosts a panel discussion and one-stop Q&A with sound experts and musicians to fill in the knowledge gaps over the legislation. The "Science of Sound" panel is 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight at Cafe Istanbul inside the New Orleans Healing Center. Admission is free.

New Orleans City Council is helping redraft the city's decades-old noise ordinance based one recommendations made by sound expert David Woolworth in his 100-page assessment of sound in New Orleans. District C New Orleans City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer — who represents the entertainment-heavy French Quarter and Marigny — is leading the City Council's efforts. But there have been other recommendations, made by businesses and small neighborhood groups, as well as suggestions offered by the music community and its supporters. Read more about the city's "noise" legislation in Gambit.

Tonight's panel will address conflicting points made by disparate groups and the largely abstract, science-based reports that inform City Council's pending legislation. From MACCNO's announcement:

Does bass rattling from a passing car actually affect your health or building stability? Can you prevent sound issues in your home by just closing your window? Will vacuum cleaners and leaf blowers find themselves forever banned from the French Quarter under new regulations? The time has come to answer these questions with real world examples!

Lost in the rhetorical din over the sound ordinance is the actual science behind measuring sound and what decibel levels mean to performers, audiences, and others. By making these abstract concepts more real and applicable to the actual environment of New Orleans, MaCCNO hopes to further the discussion around the sound ordinance and find practical, viable solutions that preserves the culture of this city and allows all citizens to reside and thrive in our historical neighborhoods.

Woolworth will join the panel, as well as members of Young Fellaz Brass Band and FireBug and others.